'Mass brawl' outside TK Maxx sees man stabbed as brawlers wield wooden stake

Police have launched an investigation after a 'mass brawl' outside a TK Maxx store left at least one person injured.

Shocked witnesses described seeing blood on the pavement in the aftermath of the mass disorder incident in Orpington, SouthLondon early this morning. The altercation, which broke out near the area's TK Maxxstore and a branch of The Gym Group, is said to have involved several people fighting, including some people using a wooden stake and knife to attack each other. One man was treated at the scene for stab wounds and taken tohospital. A police cordon remains in place around the scene today.

No arrests have been made, and police have asked anyone who witnessed the incident or who may have mobile phone footage to come forward.

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A spokesperson for Metropolitan Police said: "Around 00:00hrs on Saturday, 2 August, officers attended Sevenoaks Way, Orpington, alongside the London Ambulance Service and London’s Air Ambulance following reports of an altercation.

"A man was treated at the scene for stab wounds. He was taken to hospital, where we await an update on his condition.

"No arrests have been made at this early stage of the investigation.

"Anybody who witnessed the incident - or who has information - should contact the police on 101, quoting 9031/02AUG."

Several businesses along the road remained closed today, including The Gym, Carpet Giant and iCarpets4Less.

A statement from The Gym group read: "Sorry for any inconvenience caused during this closure. We will keep updated in our stories and also invite you to access another Gym Group location at no extra cost, this will be Bexleyheath."

This week, Met Police chief Mark Rowley vowed roll out use of facial recognition technology to crack down on soaring rates of violent crime and robbery in the capital.

He told the Express: "This is all a part of bearing down on violent crime, on shoplifting, on robbery and thefts of phones, which we know is a big concern to people. We're putting more officers and more clever technology into doing this, particularly focused in the West End, but also in other parts of other parts of London.

"There are some groups who are concerned about it [facial recognition technology], but we've done surveys. The vast, vast majority of the public are keen on the technology, and the results it gets are enormous."

"We're only using it to look for serious offenders like wanted offenders and registered sex offenders, and we routinely put it out there and capture multiple serious offenders in one go.

"Many of them who have committed serious offences against women or children, or people who are wanted for armed robbery."